Green crime and Gold extraction in Madre de Dios, Peru

• In Event: International Environmental/Green Crimes

Abstract

The rise in gold prices has impacted the processes of gold mining. A key issue, however, is that many contemporary source countries such as Peru exhibit gold extraction booms in precisely ecologically sensitive regions that are relatively well-preserved, which generates significant environmental harms. In addition, the economic boom generated by gold extraction has resulted in a rapid expansion of illegal mining, which continues to spread even with the recent regulatory frameworks created and mining policies designed.

Using an approach based on recent literature developments on Neo-extractivism and Green Criminology, this study takes up three research foci surrounding gold extraction. First, it highlights the various ways in which gold extraction involves illegal practices as a means of explaining how gold mining causes environmental harms and green crimes. Second, it examines secondary environmental harms involving “legal but unregulated” and “illegal but unenforced” activities that occur around extraction sites. And third, it evaluates law enforcement actions included in the “National Plan of Formalization” implemented by the national government since 2010 to regulate artisanal and small-scale gold mining, and tackle illegal gold mining. Focus is laid on identifying the implications of the differences between “law on the books” and “law in action”.

Author

• Johanna Espin, University of Florida